44 WILD TRAITS IN TA^NIE ANIMALS. 



born deaf the same may be said of those im- 

 pressions conveyed by the auditory nerve, upon 

 which most of us depend so much in gaining 

 knowledge. 



But this structural difference of brain, with 

 its inevitable consequences, although it balks 

 us in one way, comes to our aid in another. 

 As has been said, our custom of ascribing human 

 faculties and modes of thought is an involuntary 

 and invariable one when we are dealing with 

 the mental processes of other beings. Even 

 when we speak of the supernatural the same 

 habit is manifest, and human passions, emo- 

 tions, and weaknesses are constantly ascribed 

 to beings presumed to be infinitely more re- 

 mote from us in power and knowledge than 

 we are from the dog^. Thus we see, in the 

 not very distant past, roasted flesh and fruits 

 were thought by men to be acceptable to deity, 

 — doubtless because they were pleasing to the 

 palates of the worshippers, who reasoned by 

 analogy from the known to the unknown. This 

 should teach us to bear in mind that there is, 

 affecting the dog's point of view, almost un- 

 doubtedly such a thing as cynoinorphism, and 

 that he has his peculiar and limited ideas of 



